Biggles Takes the Bait
Biggles Takes the Bait is a short story which was first published in The Modern Boy's Annual 1938. Thereafter the book became an "uncollected story" in the sense that it was never gathered into a collection and published in book form during the life of W. E. Johns. The story was finally collected and published in Biggles Air Ace, published by Norman Wright in 1999 and 2008. Synopsis An R.F.C. major carrying despatches drops in for fuel at Maranique. The major seems very confident of being able to take care of himself despite having to go very close to enemy airspace. Biggles is not so sure. When the major departs, Biggles takes off after him, not knowing that the supposed courier is just a bait. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Characters *Biggles *Hauptmann Erich von Scrat Aircraft *Sopwith Camel *Fokker - the text doesn't specify the model but the illustrations clearly show a Fokker D.VII. And given the chronological hints which place the story in April-June 1918, for once, this mention of the D.VII is not anachronistic. Places Visited *266 Squadron, Maranique Mentioned *Neufchatel - probably Neufchatel-sur-Aisne, the courier's destination. Other Research Notes *Aerial Victories: Biggles 3 **"The Fokker wavered, then spun earthwards, a plume of black smoke streaming from its engine," **A Fokker, orange with blue stripes "reared up as pieces of three-ply ripped off the side of its orange body ... rolled over on its back and spun earthward...." It then "zoomed vertically into the air," stalled, fell out of its zoom and "crashed fair and square on the top plane of another Fokker." This counts as 1 or 2 depending on claim rules. Location of Maranique *A lot of good information is given which helps in locating Maranique. Unfortunately some of the information is contradictory. The major is going to Neufchatel, by which is probably meant Neufchatel-sur-Aisne. In the text, the major says he can get there by flying east from Maranique. *Forget for the moment that for most of the war, Neufchatel was behind the German lines. The problem is that Neufchatel-sur-Aisne is very far to the south, in the French sector south of the Somme. It is not plausible for Maranique to have been located in the British sector and yet allow one to get to Neufchatel by flying east. *What's more, Biggles says flying east takes one through the "big Hun salient". This refers to the big salient in the line caused by the German spring offensive of 1918. The line in this area runs mainly north to south and the salient punches the line westwards towards Amiens. There is nowhere where one can fly east across the salient and still end up in Allied territory. *The solution is to assume a typo or editing error. Perhaps what was meant is the major wanted to fly "south-east". A course south-east from somewhere around Amiens would indeed take one across the salient and reach Neufchatel. It also makes sense of Biggles' advice to fly south and then east, to take a dog-leg around the salient. Incongruities Chronology (see also table at Timeline of the Biggles Stories) *April-June 1918 based on the following: **The "big Hun salient" developed as a result of the German Spring Offensive which began on 21 March 1918. **The Fokker D.VII entered squadron service around April 1918. **Biggles says "no wonder we are losing the war" - this would have been a natural statement during the early days of the German offensive but not true later when the Germn offensive had been halted and the Allies were beginning to counter-attack. Publication History *''The Modern Boy's Annual'', 1938 *''Biggles Air Ace'', Norman Wright, 1999 and 2008 References Category:Short stories Category:Biggles short stories Category:World War One era short stories Category:Uncollected stories